Wrestling entered in Europe in the '20s. The first European country that
celebrated wrestling matches was
Switzerland, maybe because at that time, a style of fight called "schwinger"
(swinging) was very popular in that country. In a few years wrestling arrived
to other countries like UK, Austria, Germany, France...

In France wrestling became very popular because their Olympic champion, Henry
DeGlane turned pro (in the '30s DeGlane became AWA heavyweight champ).

Wrestling arrived to Spain in the late '20s, thanks to the French influence.
In my country, wrestling was called "catch as catch can," but in the '50s it
was shortened to "catch," but it also was named "lucha libre" by Mexican
influence ("lucha libre" means "free fight" in Spanish).

In the first wrestling tour that was held in Spain, all the wrestlers were
foreign. The first tour included stars Karol Nowina, Martin Zikoff, Rex Gable
(from Canada), Wladek Zbyszko (Poland), Maximo Botincelli (Italy), Kisko,
Strasnaer (Belgium) and others. Wrestling became very
popular in a short time, and many Olympic and Greco-Roman wrestlers, as well
as boxers turned pro wrestlers.

The two most important cities from Spain, Madrid and Barcelona, headed the
Spanish wrestling movement, but many of the other cities had their own
circuit. Also was created a committee called "Corporación Internacional de
Catch" (Catch's International Corporation) that grouped
the Spanish, North African and Portuguese wrestlers. The first Spanish
wrestlers were Jorge Alos, Ares, Ballesteros, Bejar, Bordons, Calpe, Garcia
Ochoa, Legido, Mendez, Mendieta II, Cheo Morejon (former pro boxer), Otaola,
Romero, Salvador, Sola, Urtasun and Villaescusa. From
1933 to 1936 a Civil War broke in Spain and wrestling was inactive during war
times.

But in the early '40s the circuits Madrid and Barcelona re-opened and both
circuits had the total control of the other cities. In the restart of the
wrestling in Spain, the active wrestlers were Saturio, Jarque, Tomas Grau
(former Spanish heavyweight champ), Karter, Tabola, Salvador
Font nicknamed "El Oculista" (the oculist) because he used eye rakes very
much, Eugenio Gonzalez aka "Gorila Espá'ol" (the Spanish gorilla) also a
former Spanish heavyweight champ, and the best of that generation, Jose
"Maciste" Pons, that started as a pro boxer in Barcelona, but thentraveled to
Canada when he entered pro wrestling (he was in Canada during the Spanish war
years) and years later returned to Europe, but retired when the 2nd World War
started. He lived in Palma de Mallorca, and in 1945 (when "catch" started in
this city) he returned to the
sport. He retired in 1950 but not left the lucha andbecame a referee.

I'll make a stop and after continuing I'll describe how wrestling was in
Spain. In Spain, wrestling rules had many points in common with boxing rules.
Wrestlers came to the ring with their seconds, that gave them water in the
intermissions. The matches were split in 3-to-5 minute
rounds, and the wrestlers were separated in weight categories (lightweight,
mid-middleweight, middleweight, mid-heavyweight, light heavyweight and
heavyweight)and each category had three titles (national/Spanish title,
European title and World title -European version-). Sometimes were promoted
matches with wrestlers with very different weight, but it was because the
wrestler with less had a great technique. The wrestlers were divided into
other two categories, the estilistas (stylists, faces) and the violentos
(violent wrestlers, heels). Almost all the matches faced estilistas with
violentos, but in tourneys there were mixed matches.

In Spain wrestling had a very strict rules. If a wrestler hit or insulted the
referee, the wrestler immediately got DQed by the referee and fined by the
Spanish lucha federation. Also the "fault" (low blow) was penalized with DQ.

Wrestlers were able to win by pinfall, submission, technical KO, count-out (a
10 count, but if a belt holder loses by count-out, the belt changes hands),
double DQ or no-contest (time limit expires). In Spain there were only two
managers ever, so any match ended with a "screwjob". In the late 60's a
wrestler called "El hombre salvaje de Borneo" (The savage from Borneo) aka
Sabu in the US (no relationship with Sheik's nephew) had a manager that was a
British wrestler later known as "Society Boy". Also a black wrestler from
Congo called M'Boaba had a white valet that distracted M'Boaba's opponents.

The wrestling cards usually were held in theaters, Bullfighting squares, and
Soccer stadiums, but later matches were held in stadiums like "Salon Iris"
and "Gran Price" in Barcelona and "Campo del Gas" and "Fronton de
Recoletos" in Madrid.

Well, let's continue the Spanish wrestling history, decade by decade. The
late '40s were the greatest moment of lucha, and we were visited by great
wrestlers like the French Henry Coogan, Letertrois, Felix Clody, Freymond,
Joe Baratte, Marcel Manuel, Andre Drapp (later wrestled in USA), Lino Ventura
(later film star), Robert Ruaux and Gilbert LeDuc (many times Mid-HW and
Light HW champ in both European and World versions) ; from Portugal Joe Luis
and Kid Zamboa ; from Belgium Van Dyk, Saenen, Jo Soulon and Bert Auwera
(former Belgium HW champ) ; from USA Cher Johnsonm Mike "American Tiger"
Brendel and Don Carver ; from UK Lew Britton, Cab Cashford, Vic Hesselen and
Jack Dale (former European champ, but I don't know in which weight) ;
Peltonin from Estonia ;
Brossatti from Italy ; and the Hungarian Karl Pirok (former European
champion) and Stan Karolyi. Karolyi was the best foreign wrestler of this
decade. He had a very skillful technical style and finished his matches with
a variant of the actual Scorpion Death Lock.

The Spanish wrestlers were Joaquin Saludes "The Catalonian Tiger", Julio
Soria "Captain Marvels", the very technical Juan Salesa, Pablo Bernaus,
Fermos, Bonada, Moncho and Rubio and Ignacio Ara (former boxing champion in
Spain), but the best wrestlers of this breed, were Jose Tarres, Felix Lamban
aka Lamban I and Victorio Ochoa by far.

Tarres, which real name was Jose Roses Ibañez (in Spain, as well as in
Mexico, we have TWO surnames) was nicknamed "Iron Head" because some said
that his head was reconstructed with several iron plaques after an
accident. He wasn't very technical, but very strong and he landed terrific
headbutts. One time he broke a big table of marble with only a headbutt (!),
and it wasn't an angle or a fake, because he did it in his free time. He won
the European HW championship in Barcelona the 28th of
August of 1948 against UK's Jack Dale. He was a very popular wrestler and the
card in which he successful defended the title against the French Freymond
drew a crowd of 22,000.

Victorio Ochoa, the Navarrese lion, was born on 1919. His father, Javier
Ochoa was a great amateur wrestler, and was one of the wrestlers that
introduced wrestler to Mexico. Victorio was a very technical wrestler and won
the World and European HW titles, but in the prime of his
career, he was killed in a familiar quarrel.

And last but not least, Felix Lamban, also known as Lamban I and "El
Estrangulador" (Strangler) because he made submit his opponents with a
variant of the headlock that received the name of "la corbata" (the tie). He
was many times Spanish, European and World champion in the Light HW and HW
divisions and had a good international reputation, specially on Paris,
France. He also wrestled in the US, but returned to Spain and retired in the
mid '60s.

In the first years of the '50s, wrestling continued its good moment. In the
first five years we were visited by foreign wrestlers with the quality of
Maurice Tillet, the French Angel ("El Angel" in Spain) that had a huge
success in the US. Angel's paid was so big that he only wrestled a few bouts
in Barcelona. Other good French wrestlers were Jean Bout, L'Henaff, Jourlain,
Andre Gasnier, Rene Ben Chemoul (former World Light champ, he was nicknamed
Hawk because of his 3rd rope planchas), Claude Montourcy, Pierre Boss,
Michael Chaisne, Jules Delmee (good technician and former Mid-HW European
champ), Rene Bukovac (also MID-HW Euro champ) and his brother Ray Bukovac,
Roger "The French Ace" Guettier
(former Light HW European champ), Claude Guilloton, Felix Miquet, Jacques
Ducrez (LHW European champ), Roberts Gastel and Robert "Mr. Europe" Duranton
; British wrestlers Mike Marino, Lombardo, John Mornhy, Tony Mann, Gerry De
Jagger and Al Hayes (later WWF color-commentator) ; US wrestlers Bolo Hakawa
(from Hawaii), Suni War Cloud, Pat Curry and former World HW champion Frank
Sexton; Belgian wrestlers Van DerVeken,
Joss Husberg and "Strangler" Dr. Grailet ; Finnish wrestler Eric Husberg "The
Nordic Marvel" ; Bob Nilson from Canada ; Juanito Olaguibel from Argentina
also known as "The man of the cloak" because he wore one in his way to the
ring ; the Swiss Lucien Fleurot ; Brazilian wrestler
Black Green "The ebony giant" ; Leon Mansini from Italy ; Krigor Koperanian
from Armenia ; David from Israel ; Paul Lincoln from Australia ; Negro Badu
from Cuba ; Eddy Wiecz (later known as Ed Carpentier) from Poland ; Charro
Montes from Mexico, Iska Khan from the Orient and Black Kwango "the black
marvel" from Parts Unknown.

Jim Oliver was a former amateur boxer. He boxed in 1948's Olympic Games and a
few pro boxing matches with bad luck, but he turned pro wrestler after a
promoter and former wrestler named Salvador convinced him. In
only a year he was European Mid-HW champion, he beat "Iron Man" Jose Tarres
the 30th of May, 1951 inBarcelona to become the champion. He was a wrestler
with a very bad temperament, and one time in 1952 he had an
altercation with a referee causing six broken teeth to the poor ref. He was
banned from wrestling in Spain for a year, but he wrestled in the whole
Europe, mainly in London and Paris. In 1964 he retired.

Jesus Chausson, son of a French and a Spanish, alternated his wrestling
career with his dentist profession, like Mexican wrestler Villano IV. He was
many years European Mid-Heavyweight champion, and was a master inthe
execution of a submission hold called "el patinete". This hold is known as
"la tapatia" in Mexico, "Romero Special" in Japan and "Bow and Arrow" in the
US.

Eduardo Castillo was very technician and brave, and he was World Light
Heavyweight champion during a brief time. He didn't wrestle many matches
abroad, he was almost all of his career wrestling in Spain.

And for last, Pedro Bengoechea, nicknamed "Leg of Steel" because of his
immense leg strength, weighted 100 kg (about 220 pounds) but often he won 140
kg (about 311 pounds) mastodons. He was European Light HW champ during many
time, until he retired in the early 70's.

The next 5 years of the '50s (1955-59) was the start of the decadence of
"catch" in Spain. People lost interest, but promoters introduced new kinds of
matches like the "torneo relámpago" (flash tourney) that were 4 men tourneys
like AJPW's Championship Carnival (all wrestlers wrestle all wrestlers in
singles matches), but the difference is that the flash tourneys were held in
one night, so the final matches were bad matches. The promoters also
introduced the "catch a cuatro" (tag team matches) and masked wrestlers that
helped to the survival of wrestling in my country.

In this period of time the foreign wrestlers that wrestled here were the
French Andre Bollet, Max Deghom, former European MW champion Roger Laroche,
Lucien Straub, Roger de la Porte (later promoter) and Pierre Boye ; the
Germans Karl Von Chenok, Rudy Satursky, Alex Dieter nicknamed "the Lord of
the Ring" and the very violent Dr. Adolf Kaiser ; UK's Black Apollo, Julien
Morris (formerly European Lightweight champ) and Tony Vallon ; Italian stars
Conde Daidone, Gasparini, Wally Catanzaro,
Liano Pellacani "The Italian Cyclone" and Primo Carnera, a former World
Heavyweight Boxing champion that turned wrestler in 1952 and was World HW
champ in Wrestling (he won its European version in 1957), and was nicknamed
"The Kindly Giant". Other foreign wrestlers were Kin Max and Kid Rocha from
Portugal, King Kong from the Lebanon, Nikolai Zigulinoff aka "the Bulgarian
sheepherd", Ivan Ivanovitch from the old URSS, Bob
Martin from Belgium, Tupac Amaru aka "Magnetic Fingers" and Indio Mapuche aka
"Electric Fingers" both from South America (both wrestlers had a very unusual
ability, they were experts on the human body and knew
the locations of the nerves of their opponents, so with their bare hands,
they pressed the nervous zones of their opponents and made them feel a sort
of electric charge), North European wrestler Ivars Martisson who was European
HW champ, Gran Amenaza (Great Menace) from the US, Captain Whitos and Black
Shadow. Black Shadow was a very violent wrestler, that many believe that was
the 1st masked wrestler to compete in Spain. The promoters said that he was
from Mexico and that he
wrestled in the MSG, but I'm well informed that he isn't the original Black
Shadow from Mexico. Anyway, he made a immediate impact because of his
mysterious personality.

The new faces in the Spanish scene were Tony Oliver (Jim's brother, very good
wrestler too, he was European Light HW champ), Cebrian, Lacoma, Henry Plata,
Caretecha I (Spanish and World Lightweight champion),
Antonio Morlans, Peral, Gabriel Laguna (former European Mid-HW champ),
Guillen, Llacer, Guti, Font II, Viñeira, Joe Garcia Arroyo (that debuted in
South America and then came to Spain), Vicente Febrer (A very violent
wrestler, he was very violent in real life too. My father knew him and
joking, Febrer put a hammerlock to my father and almost broke his arm. He was
also very known because he had a lion as a pet. He was European HW
champion.), Abelli (that wrestled in South America under a mask and
other name, but I don't know which), Valero I, Benny (that also wrestled as
the Kamikaze #2, later I'll talk more about the Kamikazes saga), Aguilar,
Rafael Blasco (former European Light HW champ), Gustavo (he wrestled in the
US), Antonio Montoro nicknamed "the master of masters"
because of his great wrestling knowledge and Modesto Aledo, that later
wrested as the Kamikaze.

The top Spanish wrestlers of the era were Hercules Cortes, Oscar Verdu and
Rafvela.

Cortes (real name Jose Alfonso Cortes Chicarro), was the World HW champion in
1964. After winning that title promoters from the whole Europe, Asia,
Australia, Canada and the USA wanted him to wrestle for them. As a youngster
he practiced athleticism, he was specially good
throwing the javelin (he ranked second in Spain). He became pro wrestler in
the mid '50s, as Pepe Cortes. He had an impressing intestinal fortitude and
weighed about 310 pounds of pure muscle. He wasn't a technical wrestler, but
a terrific brawler, and in the US scored
impressive victories over legends "Killer" Kowalski and "Crippler" Ray
Stevens. After these victories he signed with the AWA when he became tag team
champion with the legendary Red Bastien, but destiny cut Hercules'
path to glory, and he was killed in a fatal car accident.

Oscar Verdu (Ricardo Ferrara) nicknamed "The Spanish Hercules", like Cortes,
was a great brawler and wrestled in the rings of the US. He had big success
in the US independent scene, but he wasn't so lucky in the WWWF rings, when
he wrestled as Crusher Verdu "The Spaniard" and was managed by Lou Albano.

And last, Rafvela, who was born in 1925 in Arcilla, located in the Spanish
part of Morocco. He was known as "The Arcilla Strangler" and "Misantropos".
Started his career in France as an amateur boxer. As a boxer held the French
Welterweight championship, but later became a
Greco-Roman wrestler before becoming a professional wrestler. He wrestled in
America, Africa and Asia before arriving to Spain in the mid 50's. He won
many of his matches after applying "la corbata" (the tie).

The first years of the '60s were a really good ones, because "catch" in Spain
had like a rebirth with the introduction of the "catch a cuatro" or tag team
matches and the masked wrestlers, but later people started to lose
interest, and the wrestling circuits of all the cities (except
Barcelona and Madrid and other important cities like Zaragoza, Valencia or
Bilbao) disappeared and in those small cities wrestling cards were only held
in summer. But was in the late 60's when wrestling began to "die".

The masked wrestlers that appeared in Spain were the next. L'Ange Blanc
(White Angel in French) was a very technician wrestler, that never broke the
rules. He lost his mask in a mask vs. mask match, and then wrestled
without it and changing his name to El Angel Blanco (the same but in
Spanish). He was said that he wrestled with a mask because he was son of a
very important French diplomatic, but the truth is that he was a wrestler
from Madrid named Angelo Pinos.

Kamikaze, without doubt, has been the greatest gimmick in the Spanish Catch
history. He came to the ring completely dressed in black. He was a
lightweight, but he faced wrestlers of all the weights. He had an unusual
agility, and when his opponent wanted to throw him over the top rope, he did
a flip in the air to reach the ropes and return to the ring. He wrestled with
a very violent and unorthodox style, mixing cheating, martial arts, mat
wrestling and an incredible aerial ability. Because his style he was
nicknamed "the suicide wrestler" and "the black
demon". He lost his mask the 6th of July, 1965 against Conde Maximiliano, but
he quit his mask very fast and covered his face with a towel, so anybody
could see his face. His identity was a secret, but I knew his identity thanks
to a friend of the promoter, he was Modesto Aledo, a very respected veteran
that decided to put on a mask to
increase his pay.

When Kamikaze retired he was succeed by Kamikaze #2 (Benny), from 1965 to
1970. K#2 also lost his mask, this time against Fred Turner, but he did the
same that K#1 did and no one could see his face. These two were the main
wrestlers that played the role of Kamikaze, but it's known to me that other
wrestlers like Valero I and Guy Robin also wrestled as the Kamikaze.

Like I said before, from 1965 to 1970 were the years in which people lost the
interest to "catch". Many and many top class foreign wrestlers worked in
Spain, but that wrestlers couldn't stop the end of out sport in my country,
so in the early '70s wrestling in Spain disappeared.

Many masked wrestlers wrestled in the rings from Spain, like the Halcones
Dorados I and II (Golden Hawks), The Red Demon (that was a Spanish wrestler
called Milo
Millan), Torbellino Blanco (White Whirlwind, the man under the mask was the
Spaniard Mariano Yugueros. He
wrestled many years in the South West of the US), El Condor that was rumored
to be from South America, Los Dragones Chinos I and II (Chinese Dragons) and
the legendary Santo "El enmascarado de plata". Santo
(Rodolfo Guzman) toured Spain after the great success that had his films in
the Spanish cinemas, but he deceived many people when he lost to Jose Tarres
with only two "iron" headbutts.

In this period of time, we hadn't got any Spanish superstar, but good
wrestlers like Luis Alime, Lobo de Galicia (Wolf of Galicia), Guanche Canario
"El Noqueador" (The Kayoer [sp?]), Joe Rodri (former Mid-HW European champ),
Fred Turner, Salvador Vento (Spanish and European MW champ), Tudela, El
Latino (The Latin), Joe Adell (the Spanish version of John Tenta) and the
best of them all, Luc Bejar, then a promising star
that years later became European champ in his weight.

But, what happened in the '70s? In the 70's wrestling disappeared in all the
Spanish cities, but it remained for 4 or 5 years more in Madrid and
Barcelona. In fact, wrestling lost its interest in all Europe except Austria,
Germany and the UK.

The new faces of the '70s were Pep Peyron, Rayo Blanco (White Lightning),
Fer-Penin, Brumont, Antonio Asensio, El Samurai (not Osamu Matsuda), Charro
Tapia, Quique Villa, Tarzan Vasco and King Caracuel. In 1977-78 a French
promoter called Pierre Neale tried to revive "catch"
in Spain with mixed matches and new and unknown wrestlers like Mario
Bastiani, Roky Jo and ladies like Danny Pigal, Anne De Montis, Blanche Brown
and Jennifer Mick, but it was a total flop. Also a German promoter named
Dietmar Dickreuter joined his wrestlers (George Burgens, Johnny Kinkaid, K.
Kauroff, "Lord of the Rings" Steve Taylor, Steve Young, Danny Lynch and
Roland Bock [Bock was the World HW champion, and he beat Inoki in Japan in
1977 or 1978]) with the Spanish wrestlers of the 70's (Adell, Caracuel, El
Bulldog, Bejar, Millan and Villa), but that tour was also a flop.

In the '80s there was no wrestling, but in 1990, a brand-new TV channel aired
matches of the WWF and the GLOW (ladies) and wrestling had his rebirth in
Spain. The WWF made a huge impact, and other brand-new channel aired matches
of the UWF (Herb Abrams UWF not Mid-South) while other channel broadcasted
the NWA. We even had a wrestling magazine in our own language.

In 1991 and 1993 we were visited by the WWF crew, and both cards had a huge
attendance (17000 and 15000 screaming fans). A indie promotion called WWS
(World Wrestling Superstars) visited many Spanish cities with
his crew of Mike Lane, Tony Atlas, Kamala, Nikolai Volkoff, Cheetah Kid (Ted
Petty aka Rocco Rock of PE), Iron Mike Sharpe Jr., midgets, females and
others.

The old Spanish wrestlers returned to the rings, and a promotion called LIE
(Luchadores Independientes de Europa ; European Independent Wrestlers) ran
cards with new wrestlers like Rolo Aguirre (from Brazil), the Killer Brothers
(from UK), Hercules Bermudo, Rocky Nelson, San Millan, Dani Ostenero, Indio
Amazonico and veterans like Joe Adell, Antonio Asensio, Dragon Chino I and
Julio Sotelo.

Wrestling programs quit all in 1993 and 1994 and the Spanish wrestling mag
folded in 1993, so the fans lost interest of wrestling.

Without a wrestling program there can't be wrestling fans, and the few cards
that were ran in Spain in 1995 (15th of December) and 1996 (17th of July)
with new wrestlers like Furia Azul (Blue Fury), Kid Man, Los Fachas and a few
others, were a total flop. Almost nobody attended this cards due to bad
promoting. A friend of me said to me that in the first card the promoter
couldn't pay the wrestlers and they wrestled for free. This is sad but true.

And well, that's been the history on Spanish wrestling. Hope that you liked
it... and who knows, maybe someday wrestling in Spain will return to its
golden days.

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